


Non-Alcoholic Liquid Courage

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Coffee, Fluff, M/M, Pining, Professor!Celestino, two-person love triangle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:09:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28268175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: The coffee shop was usually boring on Sunday evening.  Tonight's been no exception, and Phichit can't even bring himself to get on social media, because he just got dumped by his social media boyfriend.  Sort of.  Technically they weren't official or anything, but it felt like a breakup.
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov, Phichit Chulanont/Celestino Cialdini
Comments: 8
Kudos: 18





	Non-Alcoholic Liquid Courage

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Phayte](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phayte/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

It was looking like another slow day at the coffee shop, as Phichit had already cleaned the counters three times, done every dish in the store that wasn’t currently in use, and swept and mopped the floor twice. It’s what he got for working Sunday evening, but still, he could not understand why his boss kept the shop open. It had to be losing money, paying two employees – we can’t have just one person there, Phichit, what if there’s an emergency? – and electricity and food waste from things getting cold before they could get sold and everything else they had to pay when the store was open.

His usual distraction wasn’t available, either. Usually, when it was this slow, he’d get on social media. He couldn’t bring himself to do that today, because just before his shift started, he’d gotten a message from a guy he’d been “dating” online. Yeah, he hadn’t really thought of the guy as his boyfriend, and he didn’t expect it to go anywhere. At least, he hadn’t thought he did, right up until he got the message that the guy was ending it because he planned to ask someone out in real life and didn’t think it was fair to string Phichit along just in case he said no. Hell of a way to realize he’d gone and gotten interested for real.

Yuuri wasn’t much help. In all fairness, he probably would have been more helpful if Phichit had said anything to him about any of this, but Yuuri had problems of his own right now. Problems named Viktor Nikiforov, Yuri Plisetsky, and anxiety. It had helped for the two hours it took Yuuri to explain the whole drama happening in his brain, where his anxiety was blowing some poorly-thought-out words from Plisetsky out of proportion and misinterpreting Nikiforov’s self-absorption as deliberate disinterest in Yuuri specifically, but once Yuuri had explained it and Phichit had tried to get through to him, he wasn’t talking to Phichit. About anything.

Phichit was just about to go clean tables just for something to do when the bell rang, alerting Phichit to the customer who just walked in. No matter what happened, this was not going to be boring, but Phichit’s customer service smile morphed into a shit-eating grin when he recognized the man standing at the counter. He held up a finger, turning away to shout, “Hey Yuuri! Get up here!”

Yuuri came out from the back, jaw dropping as he recognized Viktor Nikiforov. “Wha… Viktor? What are you doing here?”

“When Yuri Plisetsky tells you that you were a giant asshole for no good reason, it’s usually a good idea to find the person you were rude to and apologize. He told me you work here and that I should come see you.” Viktor gave Yuuri a bow. “I apologize for my rudeness yesterday, and I promise, I did recognize you. I just didn’t know what to say, and apparently said the stupidest thing possible in that situation. I’m so sorry. Would you please let me take you to dinner to make up for my rudeness?”

“Um, I… uh… huh… I don’t…”

Phichit took pity on his best friend and came over to stand beside him. “What Yuuri means to say is that he accepts your apology and your offer of dinner, but he won’t get off for another hour and a half so he can’t go now. He would love to go to dinner with you after work, and if you want to stick around here, it would be nice if you ordered a coffee or something but it’s not like you’re going to be taking up a table that we need for a paying customer if you don’t. Don’t worry about distracting him unless the boss walks in, we’re not busy, I can handle everything on my own.”

“Great! I’ll have a decaf café au lait with a sprinkle of nutmeg, please.” Viktor put enough money for two of them on the counter. “And if your friend doesn’t object, make yourself a drink as well. Whatever you like. If it costs more, let me know and I’ll cover it.”

Phichit nodded approval, so Yuuri made the two drinks with some prompting from Phichit on the difference between the latte more commonly ordered and the café au lait this customer had ordered. He was still somewhat dazed as he headed over to the table Viktor had claimed. Phichit busied himself “straightening stock” behind the counter while keeping as close an eye on them as he dared, in case Yuuri needed prompting or translating again. He was on his way to the back, having accepted that the shell had broken enough that Yuuri could talk to Viktor without help, when the bell rang again and someone else came in.

Yuuri turned to the counter, shooting a smirk Phichit’s way. Phichit ignored him. He turned away from the register, putting together the soy latte with vanilla this customer usually ordered. He had to laugh at himself as he reached for the nutmeg instead of the cinnamon to top it off, having had to correct Yuuri the other way on Viktor’s drink. Having the drink ready by the time the customer had finished fishing out the coins helped distract Phichit from the possibility of having both of his useless crushes shoot him down on the same night.

Celestino was a literature professor at the local university, and he’d told Phichit once that he needed frequent caffeination to keep up with the brains of his students. This could be either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on which class. In his upper-level classes or with his graduate students, it was mostly good, but every year he got stuck with some intro course that seemed to attract some of the worst readers to manage to make it into college. Those were the classes he needed the caffeine to get him through reading the papers while still able to keep the sarcastic remarks and fantasies of strangulation inside his head.

“Good class or bad class?” Phichit asked as he handed over the drink and took the money. He didn’t bother counting the coins. Celestino was competent and fair.

Celestino took a sip of his drink. “Neither, actually. The semester’s over, grading’s done, for the next three weeks I get to do things for myself instead of for school. Except for the research, but that’s fun.”

“So why the coffee, then? Celebration?” He tried to remember if Celestino had done this after the spring semester or his summer courses. If he had, it had been a shift when Phichit wasn’t working.

Celestino shrugged. “Typically, liquid courage is alcohol, but there’s no reason you can’t find courage in a non-alcoholic drink that makes you comfortable and happy. I’ve been struggling with a decision for a couple months now, finally made it this morning, and now I just have to do something about it.”

After a moment’s pointed wait, Phichit stuck his tongue out at Celestino. “Feel like sharing, or are you just gonna be cryptic at me today?”

“Let me get a little more of the liquid courage inside me first!” Celestino protested, taking another sip from his drink. Phichit only barely managed to hold back the comment about other forms of liquid courage he could get inside him. “Ahh, that’s better. It’s a romance issue. Two people I’ve made a connection with, and after several weeks of back and forth with myself, I finally decided what I wanted to do.”

Phichit was torn between laughing at the absurdity and screaming at the unfairness of the universe. Twice in one day he had to talk to someone he’d developed an attachment he’d never meant to only to find out they were going to ask out someone else? At least the two impulses seemed to be cancelling out, so he was able to say, “What are you going to do then?”

“I’ve done the relatively easy part and ended… it wasn’t really a relationship, but there was quite a bit of flirting happening with a friend online, to the point where I didn’t feel right about pursuing someone else without pulling back there.” Celestino leaned on the counter, the stray lock of hair that always seemed to fall out of his ponytail falling over one eye. “That’s done, now I just need to find the courage to behave badly and ask out someone half my age while he’s at work.”

“Wait a minute. Hang on.” Phichit stared at Celestino, brain trying to escape his head. “Okay, I’m probably going to feel like an idiot in about ten seconds, but… Dante’s Parad-Ice-o?” Also known as Phichit’s online recently ex-flirtation. They’d met on a figure skating forum and discovered they had quite a lot in common. It was even an Italian literature reference. How had Phichit missed this before?

Celestino very nearly dropped his drink. “You know me? From online, I mean, not from here?”

“Yeah, you sort of broke up with me a few hours ago. Hammies-on-Ice.” Now Phichit did break into laughter. He felt better now, especially if he was right about the other part of it and Celestino hadn’t just come here to get his liquid courage before going somewhere else to harass someone half his age at work. “I can’t believe we never realized!”

“I can’t either.” Celestino shook his head, looking up at Phichit. “Maybe I should behave myself better and do this online instead. Less potential of you feeling the need to be nice because of customer service. I’m so sorry about breaking up with you, will you take me back?”

“Yes. Yes I will. In fact… hey, Yuuri!”

Yuuri turned around, looking slightly startled when he noticed Celestino leaning on the counter. “What, Phichit?”

“What would you say if we mysteriously had a power outage that meant we had to shut down an hour or so early?”

Yuuri blinked. He reddened when Phichit winked at him and pointed between Viktor and Celestino. “I think we should go ahead and get things dumped or put away so that they don’t go bad overnight and leave a mess for tomorrow’s opening shift to deal with, and then we should leave. After all, if we can’t cook coffee, what use are we as a coffee shop?”

“Excellent.” Phichit turned back to Celestino. “My evening has miraculously freed up. You should take me to dinner to apologize for breaking up with me.”


End file.
